The Creator
by SurefireReadingFF
Summary: A fanfiction that tells the origins of the communities starting in the present day, leading to the Giver by Lois Lowry. It starts as a mystery concerning a strange device where sixteen are given one, but only eight will be selected for an experiment. Join two opposites in their search for answers that could lead into them into something that may be bigger than they ever expected.
1. Introduction

"The idea of a utopian society has been around since the late-colonial American and early post-Revolutionary times. Various ideas have bounced around for the creation of such. All have failed. Some have become successful through business like the Oneida, but none are true utopian societies.

"Now, there is a new idea. Out in Oregon, there is a facility where a select few will be selected to participate in a monumental experiment. Well, that's it for now. Will you be one of the eight selected?"

I looked at my watch. It's black face with white numbers glowed from the LEDs. I pressed the button to turn them off and conserve the battery. The meeting had lasted an hour. Nothing much had happened, but the fifteen, excluding myself, people in the room all looked half asleep. A utopia. We had been taught that these were impossible. What could possibly be up their sleeve?

I stood up and followed the others out of the room. I recognized seven of the people there as they were people within my other classes. Now we awaited who the eight selected are.


	2. The Watch-bands

3 months earlier...

I sat at home. There was nothing on tv and my head was still killing me. It was finally Saturday, and I was stuck on this couch. I looked at my phone, it was only half-past noon. There was a notification in the corner. It was a text from mom:

_Going to be late._

_Sandwich stuff should be in the fridge._

_Remember, your brothers and your dad are_

_fishing and camping. Wanted to remind you_

_in case you got amnesia or something._

_Get well soon buddy!_

That's my mom. It was only a fever. Nothing a little sleep would take care of. I started at the window. Blinds blocked my view from the outside, but I could still make out the road and the tree in the small front yard. Sleep took me unexpectedly.

I woke up to a room. The walls were blue with a yellow curtain in the middle covering a part of the off-white carpet. A bed lay about five feet in front of me. A soft voice whispered something inaudible. I turned around a few times, looking for the source. Nothing was in the room with me. It repeated itself again still inaudible. Suddenly, it yelled, "Run!" Something jumped out at me, screaming.

I woke with a start, for real this time. I was covered in sweat. My headache was gone, and I felt much better. I stood up and walked to my room. The white walls were convered only by a few simple posters. I changed my shirt due to the immense amount of sweat covering me only on top for some reason. The blue shirt I pulled over was one of the blood donor shirts that was too big for her, but just my size.

I then proceeded to the bathroom. I then noticed myself in the mirror. I had never been vain, in fact, quite the opposite. My hair was just as straight as it could be in a cut just shorter than a buzz. My skinny face was red as if I had run a marathon; my blue eyes seemed to pierce into my own soul. People had always said that. I thought they were just deep blue eyes.

Suddenly, a knock sounded shortly after, the person hit the doorbell a few times. I turned off the light to the bathroom and his around the corner. The mysterious person then said, "It's just the mailman."

'Yeah right,' I thought. This man sounded nothing like Jeb. Jeb had a husky tenor and was a rather large man of African descent. The person at the door had a higher-pitched voice. I stayed where I was. Suddenly, I heard the door unlock and open. My heart started to beat so fast, I swear it was audible.

I heard footsteps coming my general direction. I held my breath and stood completely dull against the wall. Suddenly, Jeb turned the corner and said, "Package for you Mr. Watson. Sorry about my voice, just had to leave my kid's birthday party. She had me try some helium. The effects are wearing off, but sorry for the confusion."

"It's fine Jeb. I swear, that key mom gave you is going to give someone a heart attack someday," I replied. In truth, Jeb had been a family friend for at least 10 years. His wife was across the hall with his new daughter, Mercedes, when my mom had my brother Vince. He and my dad hit it off immediately. He had stayed here on a few occasions when the wife want doing so good or he was just lonely. He was always welcome anyways.

As if realizing what he was here to do, he handed me a box. "I was told to give this to you by the way. I don't know who set it on my doorstep, but it's addressed to you. If you'll sign here...good. I'll see you later. Tell your mom I said hello!" Jeb said as he left. I then heard the door shut and lock as well as a car drive off.

I went back to the couch and opened the package. The flaps would not budge; the packing tape holding strong. I grabbed a knife from the kitchen and cut open the box. It now opened with ease and a poured the box's contents on the couch. Amongst the packing peanuts, were a couple more boxes. One was about the size of a wallet, but was thicker. The second was about the size of a video game box. I opened the small one first.

The case was made of a blue velvet material. It flipped open revealing a black mass. I picked it up. It was made of metal and looked like black closely-weaved chains all the way around except for a small spot where two gray ones lay. A note slipped out. Glancing over it, it was a description of the mysterious thing.

According to the paper, it was a watch meant to be worn on the left hand. I needed to push the left gray button to activate it. I pushed the button and white lights began to light up around the watch in the miniscule cracks between the chains. After about a minute, it was completely covered in white light. Then, the lights dissipated and revealed some words around the band: "Select place for watch face."

At first, I was confused. I touched the watch and suddenly the time appeared in white where my finger had been. I unclipped the watch and put it around my wrist. It fit perfectly. I tried the section where I could easily read the time and hit the button again. The time disappeared. A gray line, two links in length spanning the width of the band appeared. I hit the button again and the white LEDs showed the time again: "5:12 p.m. EST" I turned off the watch and it became a black band on my left wrist.

No further text appeared, and I turned my attention to the bigger box. I opened it and it revealed a rectangle of glass. I picked it up, curious.

Suddenly, the screen lit up. Surprised, I almost dropped it, but recovered quickly. I flipped it around. It looked like a piece of glass on the other side. I flipped out back over. A single line of text was on the screen. "Activate?" I hit "yes."

Present Day

I stood in the hallway. I noticed that each of the other 15 people were wearing a different color of the watch-band. Nobody had the same color as anyone else. I walked out to my car. It was a red, modest-looking sedan, not too old, but not new either; a product of various winnings in academic and writing competitions as well as insurance money from a major car wreck nine years ago, when I was seven, that broke a few of my bones.

I climbed in and was greeted by a familiar face in my passenger seat. Logan. A friend of mine that I had known for some time, but we hadn't been close at all, until we were both nominated for this. Apparently, she had beaten me to my car, and I had forgotten to lock it.

We were opposites. She's an athlete; I'm rather nerdy. She's got friends aplenty; I have about five friends I trust. There was something I thought was a great similarity: we were #1 and #2 in our class as sophomores in the latter months of the school year. I could trust her and she could rely on me.

There was nothing special about our friendship. We were just two people that found comfort that someone else shared the same question.

"Hey," Logan said lightly punching my shoulder using her hand with the watch-band tu ssh so.

"Hello," I said in my usual nerdy way. "Have you figured out how they are going to choose the participants? I've come up with nothing."

"Same here. Do you mind driving me home? My dad is patrolling and my mom is dealing with my sister." She said, already pulling on the seatbelt. Her blue watch-band showed bright red numbers.

"Sure. Hey, your watch-band is on."

She clicked the seatbelt and pushed the button to turn it off. "The gray band near the buttons are miniature solar panels remember that. They charge the battery, but you did have a point a couple months ago. We don't want to kill the LEDs."

I backed out of the parking space and rolled down the windows. I turned onto the highway. I put my left arm on the bottom of the window. I looked left and saw her doing similar, but her dark brown hair whipped all about.

I got her home just as her dad pulled up in the patrol car. He came out in a black police uniform and walked up to my car badge shining the sun into my eyes. He stopped in front of my window and shook my hand eyeing the watch-band closely. I took my arm back in the car after, and he put both of his hands on the bottom of my car window and leaned slightly. "You do realize that you are driving my daughter around?"

"Yes sir. I promise you; there is nothing romantic between us. We just have each other's backs during this mysterious time. I'm sorry if this has caused any grief or confusion."

"I trust you. I've known you and your family for quite some time. I know you better than you think I do. Besides, I'm a cop. I can always check up on you." He laughed at the end. "The care buddy." He asked into his house.

It was a good size. The blue outside paneling held the elements out from a beautiful wooden interior. I backed out when I felt impulsed to look at my watch. I clicked the button and the time popped up. It was 4:58.

Then, the time changed to text for the second time since I activated it. "Follow the arrow. You have three hours to reach the destination. You are 20.08 miles away." it read. A timer started counting down.

I then saw Logan sprinting down the driveway. She opened the door and said, "Sorry, I forgot my bag." She grabbed it.

I grabbed her arm and stopped her from walking away. "Turn on your watch." I said seriously, releasing her arm.

"What? It just shows the time like y...oh my gosh. Is yours doing this too?" Her face was full of fear. I climbed around to where she stood frozen. The arrows were pointing in the same direction with synchronized timers and the exact same mileage remaining.

"Text your parents. We're following the arrow now. Who knows where this takes us? But, I have a feeling we'll find some answers." I says as I notified my mom. The questions would have to be answered later. She climbed back in and buckled up. I did the same and backed out of the driveway, uncertain of what the future will hold for both of us.


	3. A Drive in the Right Direction

We had been driving for about 15 minutes. I looked down at the watch-band. The arrow still pointed straight down the highway we were currently on. Logan looked a little more comfortable with the recent events, but still seemed slightly worried.

I stared at the road. Nothing but black pavement in front of me seemingly like how moments felt like hours as we approached our destination. The speed limit however was painfully slow on the road I had just turned right onto as directed by the arrow. 35 mph and just over 30 had passed since we embarked. The mileage remaining seemed to add and subtract with every turn we made. Currently, it says we were 13.4 miles from the destination.

The road was desolate. It seemed as if no cars had been on it for quite some time. Though the dirt on it contradicted that theory. Tire treads, though very light, stretched the same direction we were moving. I then noticed just how quiet the car was. Logan was now looking of into space.

"At least this is almost over," I said trying to hide the worry in my voice, but her demeanor seemed unaffected, I knew then I had done a poor job of disguising it.

"I know, but I'm worried if I'll ever see my family again. What if we are being lead to our doom? What if we never come back?" She questioned.

"I don't know what will happen," I replied. An idea just hit me. "Logan, in the back seat I'd the glass tablet. Grab it and see if it says something."

"Gotcha." She reached back and grabbed the rectangular piece of glass with little difficulty. It worked like any other tablet. It ran apps, accessed the internet, everything normally, but I was still confused by who sent it. There had been no follow up letter from the sender explaining what I needed to do with these items. Seeing that fifteen others had seemingly done the exact same, I had been solaced in that effect.

"Password please." Logan requested.

"Take the wheel for a second."

She set the glass on her legs and used her left hand to grab the wheel. Below all the other information guiding me was a number pad formed by the LEDs. I tapped in 2-0-1-7 on my watch-band. It was the year I was supposed to graduate, but this may get in the way of that. The white letters disappeared, and I turned my eyes back on the dirt road which had recently become overshadowed by a canopy of trees.

"Thanks," she said. She started to tap at the screen. Logan's face was focused and if I dared speak, I knew I'd regret it. Every so often, I looked at her to see if any progress had been made. There was, but it wasn't to deciphering the tablet. She was obviously frustrated. "Ugh!" she yelled in frustration. "All I'm getting is a message saying, 'Follow the directions.'"

"It's fine." I replied. "Try yours. Just set mine in the back where it was."

My friend set the slim sheet of glass in the back seat and rummaged through the gym had she had come to retrieve before all if this had happened. She got the same message from hers.

"I guess we're in the dark on this one," she said defeated. She placed her tablet in her bag once more and set it in the floorboard by her feet.

We were silent once more. After another few minutes had passed, she started humming a tune that I did not recognize. I glanced at the direction the arrow pointed again. It suddenly changed from straight to left as a street streaked past me.

"Hold on!" I exclaimed. She grabbed the handle on the top of the car ceiling with both hands. I slammed on the brakes and cut the wheel. Due to the dirt road, the tires didn't squeal but they would have had it been asphalt.

When the car stopped, Logan let go and cleared the hair out of her face. I slowly turned the corner. I looked at the watch-band for the distance. "100 yards" it read. I clicked the button to turn it off. I looked up and was greeted by a metal warehouse of sorts. It was slightly rusted on the roof and showed signs of age, but looked structurally sound.

I unbuckled my seatbelt and stepped out of the car, pocketing the keys as I did so. Logan did so shortly after. "I guess this is the place," she said nervously, but with sudden bravery she sprinted off saying "Come on!" I followed her around to the back as there was no door out front.

We found the door and opened it slowly. It was dark inside but still somewhat visible. I entered first and started looking for a light with my hand. I found one a few seconds later.

I had just done so whena hand covered my face and pulled me backwards. Logan gave a small yelp before it was snuffed out by the assailant. I then felt a syringe empty it's contents into my neck. I lost consciousness in a few seconds.

I woke up momentarily to what felt like an airplane takeoff, but easily could have been because I had been drugged. Once more, a syringe found me and put me back to sleep.

What seemed like an instant later, I woke up to bright lights and voices. I sat up and beheld a room of white. 15 beds lay side by side to each other. 3 were empty. All of the others were occupied by other people covered head to toe by blankets. They were alive as indicated by they're breathing, but I couldn't help but wonder:

WHERE AM I?


	4. New Surroundings

I walked towards the door at the end of the room. I put my right hand on the frame and looked back. All of the others in the room were motionless. I returned my gaze to the hallway. The hall wasn't too long, and a door lay approximately 6 yards away. On the other side, a wall.

I walked to the door and pressed my back against the wall. Without thinking, I leaned around the edge of the door. Nothing inside except a white room with more beds, but these were empty, looking as though they had not been touched at all. I turned back around, intending to go back to the room, but found another needle in my arm with the plunger pressed completely down. My vision turned black before I saw the face.

I woke in the room once again. This time however, my bed was the only one occupied. The other beds had their covers thrown aside.

I stood up and walked over to some of the other beds. They were warm. The previous inhabitants of these beds had moved out of them recently. I moved towards the door again. Same wall, same nearby door. I pressed myself against the wall by the door again. The room was still empty. I then blacked out.

I hit my head on something metal. My eyes opened, staring at a sheet of metal. I looked around. I was leaned on a bus seat. The low-grade covering to the seat marked with the outline of my body from when I was sleeping. With vision still blurred from the drugs in the syringe, I sat up trying to focus on my surroundings.

I couldn't. I wound up falling asleep again.

I woke up on the same bus. This time, however, it was stopped. The bus was empty, and my vision was clear again. I stood up and worked my way to the front of the bus and exited. I was greeted by a singular man with a clipboard in hand.

"And you are Watson, I presume?" He asked.

"Y-yes. That's me." I replied shakily. My heart started to race. I felt unsafe, but I proceeded forward off the bus.

"Good. Follow me please." He started to walk down a path. I followed suit apprehensively. We walked to a chain link fence. A camera swiveled on top of a metal pole; the man looked at it, and the gate opened shortly thereafter. I walked through with him. A sidewalk greeted us, and seemed to lead to a large central building. Green, freshly cut surrounded surrounded the walkway.

It didn't take long to get to the building. The automatic doors opened as we approached. He held an arm out and pointed straight forward. "Take that hallway and enter the second door on the right." He told me.

I followed his direction directions. They led me to a wooden door. I opened it, and was greeted by six faces.

I knew the of them but the others were a mystery. I saw Marshall and Vince among those I recognized. Marshall came up to me as soon as I opened the door. "Hey man," he greeted. "I see you were selected as well. That makes eight I guess."

"Wait, where's the other one?" I responded.

"Over there." He pointed towards a couch.

As he pointed, I couldn't help but notice the watch-band he wore on his left wrist. Just like all the other ones but only a different color. I walked over to the couch where Logan laid asleep. The brown leather couch was almost the exact same color as her hair, but her hair was darker.

I knelt down on the open side of the couch. I poked her arm a couple of times, and her eyes flew open. She seized my arm, but immediately let go. Logan quickly stood up and hugged me. I was taken by surprise, so I couldn't react fast enough. She let go as soon as she realized other people were staring. "You made it!" she exclaimed obviously feeling a little awkward as told by her face turning a bright red.

The hug felt friendly, like seeing a person you have not seen for several years. Nothing romantic about it.

The man that led me here appeared at the door again. "Hello again everyone," he started. "Follow me please."

He led the eight of us out of the room and kept walking out through the back door. When he beckoned us forward, we hurriedly rushed through the door.

Small apartments lined the street in front of us eventually leading to a slightly larger building with two glass double doors. There were four apartments on each side of the street. A sign on the side of each building had a G-a number on it. Seemed like a prison, but I wasn't going to complain. They looked comfortable.

The man looked at his clipboard. "When I read off your name, enter the house I assign you," he placed his fiber on the sheet. "Logan C. You have G-1." I saw Logan run off towards the house immediately. "Destiny B. You have G-2...Vince W. G-4..." he continued down the list.

Suddenly, he stopped. "Watson! What are you standing there for? Get into G-3 now!" I ran off as he continued down the list. The apartments seemed to change color from a standard white to the color of the watch-bands of their inhabitants. The doors turned into the colors of the numbers. A scanner was attached to the wall next to the door. The screen below the actual scanner said, "Scan key here." I looked around for a key. Nothing. I pressed the button to check the time on my watch-band. The time was not present, but words replaced it telling me to place out near the scanner.

I held up the watch-band to the scanner. The screen on the scanner turned green and the door slid open.

The room was as comfortable looking as the outside of each building. A bed changed colors as I walked into the room. The carpet stayed a white color. Everything in the room changed into either a black or white to match the colors on my watch-band. I assumed that this was the same as the other people. I walked over to the bed and sat down.

Something lumpy was under my butt. I leaned over and found a glass tablet like mine. I powered it up and found the preferences exactly like mine. In fact, it was mine. A window popped up with a variety of styles of an athletic shirt. Like everything else, it matched the prevalent color scheme.

There were a total of twelve different designs. Two struck my fancy off the bat. The first one had black as the primary color like the second one I liked. The white came up the sides of the shirt and had a small stripe on the ends of each sleeve. The second one was solid black on top but steadily turned white the further down the shirt you looked. I pushed the select button beneath the first design after a little thought.

Another window popped up with a selection of athletic pants. I selected the ones with a white stripe up the side that came to a curved point near the bottom.

I powered the tablet off and walked to the door, expecting a package to come with the selected clothing. I suddenly felt my shoe feel loose. I bent over but stopped just short of actually tying it. I noticed that I was actually wearing the clothes.

I quickly went to the mirror. The shirt hugged my torso almost to the point of skin-tight, but it wasn't. I couldn't even feel constricted. I didn't have muscle mass, but the shirt made it seem like I did have a little. The pants were a little more loose.

I stepped away from the mirror. I sat on my bed trying to take all that had just occurred in these last few hours (though much of them asleep). A remote seemed to materialize in my hand. A part of the wall slid back and revealed a large flat-screened television. I turned it on and began to watch trying to drown recent events in the scripted satire of a sitcom or something.


	5. A Few Nuances

A knock came at my door. I sat up on the bed and yawned; apparently, sleep took me as I watched tv. I reached for the remote and turned off the television. The person at my door knocked again.

"Hold on," I said sleepily. I glanced at the alarm clock on the nightstand by the bed. It read: 7:32 a.m. 'Gosh it's early,' I thought standing up and yawning one more. I stretched a little and moved towards the door. Once I got close enough, the door opened and revealed Marshall.

He too wore the athletic wear that had replaced my clothes. His were only solid colors though. Green shirt, white pants. Marshall had always carried a perplexing personality, but liked simple things rather than items complementing his personality. That's why we'd been friends for several years. Although, before this, he had really been my only friend besides Vince; two guys taking on high school. We had been social outcasts. None of that really mattered now.

I invited him in and he took a seat in a nearby chair. "Why are you up so early?" I asked still half-asleep.

"Who isn't? Everyone seems itching to tour the place and get familiar with our surroundings. After all, we'll be here for quite some time."

"What do you mean? It was advertised as two months."

"Check the news feed on your tablet," Marshall replied. "Wait, before you do that, you gotten breakfast yet? You missed dinner last night."

I was hungry. I hadn't noticed it, but my stomach had been growling. "Where do we go?" I inquired.

"Nowhere. Same place, the tablet. Look for a food app on the home screen."

I looked around for my glass tablet, but it was nowhere to be found. Sometimes, I hated that it was a clear piece of glass. I could never find it when I needed it. "Could you help me look for it Marshall?"

"No need," he replied nonchalantly. "Observe." He pulled up his green watch-band and hit a button. A shrill beeping resounded throughout my room. Marshall reached into his pocket and produced a green piece of plastic, rectangular in shape, no bigger than a playing card, and just as thin as the glass tablets themselves. He pulled the plastic horizontally and then vertically, each pull revealing more of his glass tablet. He tapped the screen and shut off the alarm. "Tracking beacon."

I pulled up my own watch-band and hot one of the small gray buttons that shall functioned as solar cells. The shrill beeping started coming from my left.

I scurried around the room looking for it. I opened a door near the back of my "home" which revealed a bathroom. The tablet lay near the sink. I must've used the bathroom in the middle of the night and not remembered it. I touched a blue button in the middle of the white screen that said, "Found." It then returned to the home screen.

I scrolled through the various pages that composed the home screen, found one that was entitled, "House Service." I clicked on it, and after a short welcome page, a menu appeared with dozens of breakfast foods. The top of the screen read, "Please select three items."

Before I selected, I walked back into the main room and sat on my bed. The list was long and varied including items like link or pattied sausages, different styles of eggs (fried, scrambled, sunny-side up, etc.), along with many types of pastries. I went ahead and chose the bacon strips, paired with two fried eggs, a toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and some maximum pulp orange juice.

The screen then asked which apartment to deliver the food to. I selected my own and was then prompted it would arrive within five minutes.

A hole in the wall opened very close to the table in the corner where Marshall sat silently. 'That was fast.' I thought. When I reached the tray, two slices of buttered toast, a banana, and two doughnuts (one regular glazed and the other filled with something). "Hey, this isn't mine!" I said outraged.

Marshall began to laugh. "That's mine! It takes a little longer than that." I handed him his food and he began to eat. My food came a short time later, piping hot. I took a cautious first bite of the eggs, careful not to break the yolk quite yet. I honestly expected it to taste powdered and fake, like school food, but was amazed to find out that it was either a real egg or a really well disguised fake one. I was convinced it was all real food when I bit into the bacon.

All of the food was perfect. The Orange juice was not from any sort of concentrate and was the perfect mix of sweet and tart. Once the food was gone, the hole in the wall reopened and we placed our trays inside. The door closed and that was that.

"Now, check the news feed."

I grabbed the tablet again. It seemed that I had accidentally left it on, but no harm done on the battery, just a 1% drop. I swiped though a few screens as the tablet connected to the Wi-Fi provided here and gathered the latest headlines.

I walked over to the bed and sat down on the black blanket that was crumbled from where I had slept involuntarily last night. Before I looked at the headlines, I remembered something. "Hey Marshall, where did you get that minimizing cover for your tablet?" I asked.

"They handed them out at dinner last night. We didn't actually eat here. We used the same method but met in the park not far from here for some friendly introduction and socializing."

"Ok. But why didn't I get one just now?"

"Logan has yours. When I told them you were sleeping with no sign of waking up anytime soon, a man gave Logan yours to give you probably today when you next meet." Marshall said rather matter-of-factly.

"Ok. I'll get it from her later"

"Hey, what is it between you two? Are y'all..."

"No! Believe me! Never in a million years would she EVER think it me that way, nor me of her! The situation with these (I held up my watch-band) formed our friendship." I interrupted.

"Ok, ok. No need to bite my head off." We sat silent for a moment.

He wasn't the only one to assume that Logan and I were more than victims if the same situation. In fact, before this all happened, the big thing was for someone to find us romantically affiliated somehow. Whenever someone noticed I was driving her home or vice versa, we quirks he followed, spied upon even. It was quite flattering really. I was unpopular, but I was kind of thankful for the attention despite the grounds it was founded upon.

I spoke first once more, "What time is that your going to begin?"

"It begins at 10 this morning. So in about an hour and a half since your alarm clock says it's 8:34. Now will you check the headlines? I really think you should see the big one."

"Fine." I looked over to the tablet in my lap. I looked at the screen and froze. In big letters, "UTOPIA PROJECT CANCELLED" I read some of the article in disbelief. A large earthquake in Oregon caused a fault to open and basically swallowed up the entire research facility.

"So wait, if the project was cancelled, what is this then?" I asked nervously.

"I don't know. This might be a government backup plan. I'm pretty sure everything will be sorted out in a few days." Marshall got up and started to move towards the door. "Let's not think about it shall we? I'll see ya later."

"I'm actually heading out myself. I'm going to ask Logan for my tablet thing. Although..." I quickly smelled my shirt, "...I need a shower."

"I'll leave ya to it then." Marshall then exited.

I walked to the back of the house and took a quick shower. It felt good, but the sudden revelation of this place bothered me. I put that thought in the back of my mind. I opened a drawer under the sink and found not only towels, but also several pairs of the clothes I had previously selected. I dried off, put a fresh pair on, and hung the towel on a nearby hook.

I walked over to the dresser where I had set down my wallet and watch-band. I put my wallet in my right pocket and put the watch-band back on my left wrist. I also put my glass tablet in my left pocket.

I opened the door and started to walk towards G-1. Once I arrived, I knocked. Several seconds passed without a response. I rapped on the door once again with a similar pattern to the one I used to get her at her house. A few seconds later, a friendly face opened the door.

Logan looked as though she had also just finished a shower as well with a towel covering her hair. Her selection of clothing was the exact same as mine ironically. The red stripe coming up and down the sides of her shirt and pants. The clothing seemed to hug her form a little too much to hers and my own liking, but granted the two choices were these or nothing, I don't think either of us were about to complain at all. There was one difference however. It was minor, but I couldn't help but notice it. The pants were cut a little short of the ankle.

Her face confirmed my suspicion. She looked uncomfortable in them. "I see you don't like the selection of fitting either," I said.

"Got that right," she said punching me in the arm like usual. "They're not too tight, but they emphasize...things...I don't like being that way. I won't go into details, but I see it does the same to you. You actually look like you have some muscle mass."

"I don't though." I said suddenly feeling very vain.

"I'm sorry. Where are my manners? Would you like to come in?" She asked after a short pause.

"Aren't you busy with something though?" I stated with a nod towards the towel encompassing her hair.

"No, not at all. I was actually about to take this thing off." With that, she unraveled the towel and the it to the side. Her brown hair falling perfectly straight a few inches past her shoulders. "Now, come in before I pull you in myself."

I walked in without further resistance after she stepped to the side. I knew Logan would actually pull me in the house whether I wanted to or not. It was just part of her personality. The setup of her abuse abode was exactly the same as mine. A bed in the center of the room against the right wall coming farther out than with the wall, a small table and chairs in the near right corner, a door in the back right leading to a bathroom where rising stream gave evidence of a recently concluded shower. The biggest difference, everything was blue primarily with a red secondary color to it like her own watch-band.

I took a chair by the table and sat down. She took out the card-sized cover for her tablet and opened it. After tapping at a few things, she closed it, and out the small blue rectangle in one of her pockets. "Have you eaten already? I meant to ask before I ordered, but it must've slipped my mind," Logan suddenly asked.

I answered with a quick nod, "Yeah, yeah, Yeah. Marshall stopped earlier and showed me the culinary ropes."

A hole opened in the wall unveiling a tray with a couple blueberry muffins, a honey bun, and a couple strips of bacon along with a glass of milk. I was closest to the tray and handed it to her.

I turned around while she ate and looked out the window. The sun shone through the tall trees that served as a backdrop of the mysterious area we found ourselves at. The sky had a few cirrus clouds in it, but nothing threatening. It was a beautiful day outside. Just like the ones where my brothers and I would...

An idea struck me. I looked back at Logan. She had just finished het mean and was placing her tray back into the hole where it had first come from. "Oh, that's right!" Logan suddenly exclaimed as if she suddenly remembered something.

She hurried to the back of her house near the bathroom and pulled something out of a drawer. Before she did so, she flashed a grin my way. She sat back down in the chair and handed me a small piece of shiny, black plastic. "For the sleepy head," she said with a laugh handing the item to me at the same time.

I immediately recognized it as the tablet cover. I took the piece of glass or if my pocket. My pants suddenly felt less "square" without the pressure of its shape. I pulled the plastic horizontally and then vertically, revealing a large empty space where the tablet went. I set the frame on the table and carefully placed my glass tablet inside. It fit snugly. I pushed inwards both directions and collapsed it back down to the size of a card. A seemingly impossible feat with as big as the glass was, but it was still cool to look at. I put the now-shrunken tablet in my pocket.

"Thanks," I said smiling. I looked at my watch-band for the time. We had about 30 minutes until the tour officially began. "Hey Logan, I've got an idea. Is there a way to get a football or frisbee?"

"Yup, the on the food application, there is a recreation tab. Hit it and a football should be one of the options."

I opened my tablet and powered it up. I flipped over to the House Service app, and there it was. A recreation tab. The first thing that popped up was a brown American football. I clicked on it, but that brought a choice: professional-sized or NCAA-sized. I couldn't decide, so I left the choice to Logan. "Which would you rather? Professional or college-sized?" I inquired.

"Just go with the college one. My hands aren't quite as big as yours." She replied.

The ball arrived not even 30 seconds later. We rushed outside after basically ripping the ball straight from the boxing it came in. Logan stopped in the middle if the road by her house, and I stopped in front of my own. This gave us a good 30-40 yards to throw. She threw first. A slightly wobbling spiral of a throw that covered the distance between us in a matter of seconds. After catching it in my arms, I threw it back to her.

My throw was as good as I was athletic: not even close. My dad called it a "wounded duck" after the way it wobbled in mid-flight. Logan chased after the ball and threw it back the same way she did before. I caught it easily in my hands. I lobbed the ball to her. The spiral was better but still terrible, but it made it to her.

A few throws later, I was getting it to her accurately and quickly as she did the same. I then did something I probably should not have done. I rocketed the ball low and fast.

The ball did not gain any height after I released it from my hand and the velocity countered any downward motion it made. I could audibly hear the ball "slicing" the air straight towards Logan's torso. She caught it, but only just. The momentum of the throw transferred into her as the ball suddenly stopped moving. She fell backward hard into her butt and left hand.

I rushed over to where she lay. She took heavy breaths, the rising of her chest gave that away. I had knocked the wind out of her. The football was still in her right hand however.

She stood up and laughed after catching her breath. I opened my mouth to apologize, but she only laughed some more. "After the project is finished, you're going to try out for the football team no matter what excuse you make." She checked the time. "Here, put this in your house," Logan said while handing me the football. "We need to get to that tour."

I scanned my watch-band and exited my house. I set the ball on my bed and exited. Logan met me at my door. "Let's go," she said and we started to walk.

Note: Hope y'all enjoyed this longer chapter. If you prefer this rather than frequent, smaller chapters, key me know. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate) and a Happy New Year!


	6. A Tour Perhaps

We met the rest of the group a short time later. Our guide was talking with Vince and Marshall as I approached. Logan sped off to join the conversation. I just stood there. They finished their conversation and the group started to creep towards the guide ever so slowly to start. The guide's voice boomed all around us. "Welcome young ladies and gentlemen!" The voice reverberated off of the surrounding area as he spoke, yet it was somewhat reserved "You all seem to have settled in quite nicely, but now it is time to broaden your knowledge of this place you'll call home for the next few months as part of this utopia project."

Marshall interrupted the guide. "About that. What is this about the REAL one getting cancelled? Where are we anyway?"

An impossible hush took over the already silent crowd. An air of intrigue and outrage mingled with the senses. The guide continued.

"Yes. I read the article too. Several weeks ago. I'm not sure if you checked the date on that article, and I encourage you to check that often before blurting ignorant comments like that. But yes, you are in another program. From a company that works alongside that same group who scheduled the original. Our program is basically the same, but just a little more...in depth per say. You would have known that had you read the article IN ITS ENTIRETY. On a different note, let's begin the tour."

So it began.

The tour was rather bland until near the end. Essentially it was only the man talking about the new organization and other things none of us cared about.

There were three buildings that actually were the tour. Not too far from the apartments was a rectangular building about the size of our apartments. Inside it, counters and shelves full of candy and other snack foods that covered the right half of it. The one part of the other half was coffee station as well as cold soda. The rest of the room was just tables.

Essentially, it was a teenager's paradise.

What little the guide said about the building was, "Welcome to the break room. Here, you can congregate and talk and 'hang out.' All-you-can-eat snack foods, soda, coffee, etc. Not much time for that right now as we are touring, but almost anytime after this, go for it."

We walked across to a much larger building. The sign made it quite apparent what the room was. The wooden hanging sign read "REC ROOM" in gold letters. We entered, but all we could see was a white hallway. Five doors adorned the right side of the hallway while three adorned the left. Our mostly silent guide (at least concerning the buildings)spoke once again. "As indicated by the sign, this is the recreation room. The first door on the left is the ladies' restroom while the second is the men's. Please keep them clean. Now, take a look through the last door."

I was the first one to do so. I was greeted by a slightly darker room with some sort of light source that looked like black lights. Except, all of the secondary colors on all of our clothes was purple. In fact, that was the only discernible color on the clothes we wore. "This is the laser tag room. Here, you can have fun playing sharks a human-like AI, against your fellows, or even a combination of both. I'm sure you'll have fun. Young man, in the black and white. Take out your tablet and demonstrate."

I reached in my pocket and funneled around with the card-sized cover. After extending the sides and activating it, the screen showing options for laser tag immediately popped up. I only selected one AI opponent with one life and hit "Match Start!" I then retracted the cover and placed it back in my pocket.

Orange and green lights began to glow. The field was rather large. The lights marked the walls and cover. I saw a black humanoid figure with red streaks on it in the far corner. A staircase led down into the arena. I descended, feeling my nerves grow and my heart pump harder as each step descended. It was only a demonstration, but I got a bad feeling about it.

Once I reached the bottom, a very pistol-like weapon materialized in front of me. Realizing that this was my weapon, I grabbed it with my right hand and liked it over. It too was purple with a black base color. It was heavier than I had expected, but it would have to do.

A red bolt of energy interrupted my analysis. It sailed harmlessly overhead, but it succeeded in making me duck behind the wall I now realized was shorter than I was. I crouched while gripping the gun with both hands. I weaved my way between walls while looking for the red of my opponent. I peered over my concert to look once more, only to be met by a series of three red bolts flying at my face. I hit the floor hard but avoided them.

I went back into a crouched position and putted around the corner of my cover. I wryly turned the corner and let off a few of my own bolts of energy where I thought I had seen the previous volley emanate from. None of them hit their target, but I did glimpse something red duck behind a piece of cover just in front of me. I mantled over my concert and bull-rushed my enemy, firing an almost steady stream of bolts as it stood up from behind its cover, but stood motionless. In an instant, the match was over.

When my vision cleared up, I realized I was laying on the ground. I had lost. My head hurt tremendously and seemed to throb along with my now-slowing heartbeat. I sat up and made my way back over to the stairs where I blacked out.

I woke up in my apartment when the sound of voices interrupted my sleep, and the smells of food filled my nose. I opened my eyes and found myself wrapped up in the black and white blanket of my bed. Although my eyes were still adjusting to the light, I could make out Logan sitting on the end of because of the blue she wore.

Marshall was sitting at the table eating a plate of tacos. After looking about the room, I realized that the voices originated from the TV. Some sort of game show was on. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. 'Gosh, I've had the worst luck the last few days.' I thought. I was sore all over; my head still ached, but I fished out my tablet and ordered some chicken wings and a soda believing some food and carbonation ought to help the pain.

A ding sounded a short time later, and the hole in the wall revealed my food. Logan jumped up to investigate. "Who ordered this?" she muttered as she picked up the tray and set it on the table.. I swung my legs to the side of my bed and prepared to stand up. "Mine." I said with sleep still heavily instilled in my voice. Before I could stand up, she had come over and gently pushed my break down onto the bed and said, "Whoa Speedy. The doctor said that you only had a minor concussion and should be fine, but she also said for you to stay in bed for the most part. I'll just bring you your food instead."

I stacked my pillows and leaned back on them as Logan placed the tray on my lap and set the drink on my nightstand. We all sat in silence whether mesmerized by some lucky person with a "chance" to win a million dollars or by food. I feel sleep again almost immediately after I fished my food.

I woke up to find that Marshall was gone and night had fallen as characterized by the inherent darkness outside and street lamp glowing to the left of my window. My alarm clock read 12:47 a.m. Logan was laid out across my bed just below my covered-up feet. The TV was turned off probably because she fell asleep watching it. I tapped her shoulder with my foot underneath the blanket. Her eyes opened slightly but immediately closed again.

I tried a few more times, but sleep, induced by my knowledge of the time or due to the minor concussion afflicting me, took me over once again and didn't wake up until morning.


	7. A Strange Feeling

I woke up around 9:30, very uncharacteristic of my usual sleeping patterns. 'It must be the concussion.' I thought. I sat up and looked out the nearby window. The light leaking through the curtains caused my head to throb to the point where I collapsed back onto my pillow, causing the bed to bounce momentarily before settling back down.

I now lay fully awake, just staring blankly at my ceiling. Then, a thought hit me. This seemed more like a teenager's paradise rather than a utopian project. Where were the jobs, the cooperation? I've seen none of this. We've just say on our butts and done absolutely nothing to even hint at the beginnings of a utopian society.

Though the thought bothered me, I figured that the creators of this facility want us to be comfortable before the actual thing begins. Lost thought, I didn't notice Logan wake up. Het clothing was wrinkled from the odd position she had shifted to during the night. Her hair was full of static on her left side and stood almost straight out, while the right was only slightly out of place. Once she noticed I was staring at her, she said, "Sorry, it seems that I borrowed a part of your bed last night. I was just making sure you were ok, and..." Het face began to turn red as she woke up more and more.

"It's alright," I laughed. "I appreciate the effort. It's not often that people care about me." I momentarily flashed back to my time at Governor's Honors Program near Valdosta. I was the only one from my school to go, not knowing a soul. I was isolated basically the entire time. Fun as it was, I didn't make many friends.

I'm not quite sure Logan heard what I said as she left my apartment just as I spoke. 'Modest as always.' I thought almost out loud. We shared similar moral standards that seemed to coincide with what we were taught in certain classes art school and our parents' demands of our behavior, but Logan got embarrassed very easily. You could tell despite her complexion. She was half-Cherokee and a quarter of some sort of tribe from the Great Plains, her mom being the full Cherokee.

I climbed out of bed and shut the curtains all the way. My head still throbbed as I stood, but it wasn't as bad.

I took a short shower and ordered some breakfast. Afterwards, I sat looking at the tv as some classic cartoons played, sipping orange juice from the small pitcher sent with my food. I returned the tray and pitcher. I exited my apartment soon after with the intention of going to the Rec Center.

I stepped through its doors and immediately heard the sound of rubber hitting a cement wall. It seemed to emanate from the first door on the right side. I pushed open the heavy metal door and immediately saw a large concrete wall with a singular figure in red and gold holding a tennis racquet of the same comes colors chasing after a dark blue ball. The door suddenly slammed hard behind me.

Due to the sudden lack of concentration, the slightly larger figure missed the ball completely and turned around just as it hit the wall. Amid that, he saw me. I immediately recognized the face. It was Hunter, the one friend I made at GHP. As I greeted him, I became aware of the sweat stains beginning to gather on his singularly and vertically striped pants and shirt.

"Care to join man?" Hunter inquired.

"Nah, I'm good. What'd I miss while I was out?" I inquired.

"Not much, that other building they showed us is where they are going to run the utopia analysis stuff. The first test will occur in the next couple of days. Also, they opened a chat that's accessible through the Key as well as the Panes."

"I'm sorry. Key and Panes? What in the world those? Bad YouTube channels?"

Hunter laughed at this. "No. They told us that the watch things are called Keys and the glass tablets are called Panes."

"Interesting. But Hunter, not to completely knock off the luxury we're living in, but this place send a bit strange. Own apartments, east when we want, unlimited junk food, and all this stuff seems like a teenager's paradise than a utopia."

"Haven't noticed. Then again, I have raided the root beer and Reese's from the place with the snacks." Hunter replied while paying his slightly bigger belly.

"It's that why you're here?"

"Little bit. It's always the fat guy that gets eliminated first."

We both laughed. We carried on conversation for a couple of hours, and I did wind up joining him in just going the ball against the wall. Afterwards, I exited the Rec Center and headed to the building that was full of snack foods and whatnot. I walked over to the one of the clear-glassed refrigerators that were very similar to those at gas stations. I grabbed a root beer. It's weight was strange; there was an added weight to it for some reason. The bottle was made of glass, but it wasn't that. The bottle actually felt as if an amount of lead was inside.

Once more pushing those types of thoughts from my mind, I focused on drinking my beverage and trying to decipher what all was happening here. Each thought led me to one conclusion, something wasn't right. It seemed like too much of a paradise to either be completely fake or something much larger was behind this sort of establishment. Midway through my thoughts, I realized that I was put of root beer, so I grabbed a couple more: one for now, the other for later.

When I see back down, I couldn't jump back into my original train of thought. Instead of thinking more, I opened the chat window that Hunter had talked about. I attempted to contact Logan to see if she was alright. I messaged her throughout the day with no response of any sort. Her door remained closed when I knocked, silence the only sound being 'heard' from within.

The next three days passed slowly. I talked with a few people there, including Marshall and Vince. I never saw Logan through any of those days. It worried me to be frank; this act of ignoring me was common of her before we received the devices now known as Keys and Panes.

On the morning of the fourth day I hadn't seen nor heard from Logan, an announcement cut its way through the chat and programs that undoubtedly all of the participants were using. "Meet in the Rec Center at 2:30 p.m."

I had no idea what this meeting was to be about, but I felt like the actual experiment was about to begin. With that, I could feel the excitement build as well as the nervousness.


	8. A Short Questionnaire

"Now, I have no doubt that all of you are curious about your purpose here. Why we have isolated you from the world essentially in terms of location..." The balding scientist by the name of Johansson rambled on.

This meeting had gone on for over an hour now. A slide-presentation seemed to hover in mid air against the even, white wall behind it. All the chairs were filled up with teenagers wearing completely different colors from the others. The chat rooms were temporarily disabled, and that left us with nothing to do except listen and day dream. With Logan still ignoring my requests for friendly conversation, it's not like I had anything better to do anyways.

There was only eight of us in this small and square room, but there were thirty-two chairs set up in rows of 4 apiece, but I sat alone in the second row, Logan in the fifth, and Marshall in the row behind that. I changed my thoughts to the speaker at the front of the room.

"...Now, I will tell you the purpose of your stay here, besides eating am the junk food you desire," the man chuckled at that. "When you power on your Panes, you will find a questionnaire for you to fill out. All of your accesses to your living quarters, entertainment, etc. will be locked until it's completion. It is only five questions, so I suggest you do the assignment now." With that, he walked out the heavy doors in the back of the room.

I pulled out my Pane and powered it up. The aforementioned questionnaire pulled up immediately. The directions read: **Please select the answer choice that best corresponds to your personality. Please do not lie on your answers as this will affect your living experience. **

It was beyond me why they would put that on here as we are all teenagers and prone to doing the opposite of the given directions. I started to look at the questions.

**If you were given unlimited power, how would you use it?**

**Use it to gain all that you have ever wanted.**

**Get rid of any opposition you have had to deal with in the past**

**World Peace**

**Recreate the Universe**

**If you could bring another person here, who would it be?**

**Parent**

**Sibling**

**Pet**

**I'm a loner**

**What would be your ideal food?**

**Pizza**

**Burgers**

**Both**

**Doesn't matter. Food is good either way.**

**If you could eliminate one of the following events in history, which would it be?**

**The Holocaust during World War II**

**Christ's Crucifixion by the Romans**

**The Communist Manifesto being thought of**

**The assassination of any World Leader**

**If you could do anything you wanted to without negative consequences, which of the following would you MOST likely do?**

**Throw a WICKED Party**

**Rob a bank**

**Read or do something lame**

**420 BlazeIt NOSCOPE some newbs in some violent video game your shouldn't play, but can wait to cause carnage and Pwn like a boss with MLG airhorns.**

I finished quickly marking: A,C,C,A,C not because I couldn't decide, but that's just how everything happened. I looked around and found nobody in the room after I got the submit button. 'I guess I took longer than I thought.'

A green access granted flashed across my Pane's screen. I condensed it and shoved it back into my pocket.

For the rest of the day, I stayed isolated from everyone else. However, I did glimpse Logan moving nervously through the hall of the REC Center. I found it curious but gave her the space she obviously needed. I stayed in the Laser Tag room for a couple hours. I never initiated an actual match, but just sat there in the dimly lit room thinking when my Key buzzed with a new notification.

It was a long-awaited message from Logan

Not much time to explain, but I need you to meet me in my apartment at 6:30.

It was unexpected at the least, but 6:30 was in half an hour. I slowly meandered out of the REC Center and went to the Break Room. I grabbed a Cherry Cola from the fridge as well as a Citrus variant of the same brand. I then proceeded to the only blue and red living space in the area hoping to make amends for whatever I did to offend her (as I had come to the conclusion I had done something wrong).


End file.
